I wanted to explore making prints of some of my work, to sell alongside my eventual comics work; at fairs, conventions and maybe online.
I want to do this via some traditional printing methods, firstly riso, which is a technique I have not used before but love the look of. Before starting, I wanted to do some research into the riso method to make the most of the process!
Footprint, a local Leeds Riso printing co-op, says:
"Riso printing works along the same basic principles as screen printing, although digitized and automated. The computer (or scanner unit on top) describes the image to the risograph in binary code, telling it to create millions of tiny holes into a thin filmy sheet, called a ‘master’. The master is then wrapped around the drum. When the drum spins, the ink is forced out through these little holes, transferring the image onto the paper as it passes by. Different coloured inks are printed in layers. The paper is fed through the one-colour machine (pictured) once for each colour and for each side"
Out of the Blueprint says:
"The darkness of your greyscale artwork will roughly correspond to the intensity of the ink in print. Any artwork that’s black on screen will print using the full saturation of the ink, and any pale grey artwork will come out as a pale tone. Prints often come out lighter than you’d expect, so if in doubt, go darker! "
Below is an example they give of the various colours and opacities:
- The inks are semi transparent, so can be layered! using the multiply cool on photoshop/procreate is a good way to see how the work will look printed
- Full pages of ink are a bad idea, and can cause printing problems
- If printing text, don't overlay it, as the misregistered way riso printers work will make it hard to read.